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| Start reading product labels the same way you read food labels. We think people should care about what ingredients they’re putting on your skin just as much as they care about how many calories they’re putting in their mouth. |
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Call us crazy, but we think that people should actually be allowed to know everything that’s in a product that they’re using. Unfortunately, the EPA doesn’t seem to agree. For some products, the EPA protects companies from having to disclose all of the ingredients on the label because they’re considered “proprietary trade secrets.” So the EPA is basically protecting these companies by helping them keep their “trade secrets” from their competitors…while also allowing them to keep the ingredients a secret from the consumers too.
These secret ingredients are classified on a label as either “inert” or “inactive” and are found in products that contain one or more active ingredients. Some examples are medicated lotions and lip balms, antibacterial soaps, dandruff shampoos, pesticide products…just to name a few. The “active ingredient” is the one that is responsible for “doing the job” of the product. “Inert ingredients” are all of the other ingredients that the EPA doesn’t classify as “active.”
Now here are the three major problems that we see with inerts:
1.) Oftentimes the active ingredient(s) only make up about 3% of the product. Yep, that means that the other 97% of the product is made up of “inert” ingredients that aren’t labeled anywhere on the product.
2.) Inerts are often as, if not more, dangerous than active ingredients. Some inerts increase an active ingredient’s persistence in the environment by making it more resistant to break-down. Other inerts may damage the enzymes in the liver that are designed to detoxify the chemicals, while some others dry the skin but are found in personal care products. Hmm…
and 3.) YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT 97% OF YOUR PRODUCT IS!!!
So the moral of the story is opt for products that list ALL of their ingredients on the label. |
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This obviously doesn’t always apply, but it’s a good “rule of thumb” to start with. If an ingredient is 37-letters long and sounds like it was made in a lab, then it most likely was. You might want to avoid products that contain those, because chances are very likely that that ingredient wasn’t adequately tested.
Sometimes an “unpronounceable word” is merely a scientific name for a natural ingredient…but that’s why researching ingredients that you aren’t familiar with is a good idea. |
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What a nice segue, don’t you think? Like we just said, research any ingredients that you aren’t familiar with. You might find out that the ingredient is a fancy name for salt…or you might find out that it’s a chemical that causes tumors in mice.
All companies are required to have Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) on all of the chemicals they use. MSDS’s list all of the properties and known effects of the chemical. Companies are required by law to share MSDS’s when they’re requested, so that’s a good place to start your investigation. They can be hard to track down, but they can be found online sometimes or you can try contacting the company directly. |
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| Imagine this – there are companies out there that not only list all of their ingredients, but they also tell you where each ingredient came from and why it’s in the product. Oh yes, we love those companies. We think you should love them too. Trust us – it’s a good thing to actually know what you’re putting in you mouth, on your skin, and in your air. |
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1.) “Nontoxic” doesn’t always mean “Not toxic." “Nontoxic” is used to indicate that a product is a safer alternative to a more toxic formulation of the same type of product. It's definitely better to find products that are “Not toxic” rather than “nontoxic”
2.) “Hypoallergenic” only means that the product doesn't contain any of the most common allergens. There's no way make a product that is completely hypoallergenic, because it's possible to be allergic to anything. There's no way that a company can guarantee that no one's body will view their product as a "foreign invader."
3.) “Natural” is used to mean that a product is made primarily of renewable resources, as opposed to man-made ingredients from non-renewable resources. This term gives the illusion that the product is “of nature," but it really means that some part of the product is natural and not completely made from petrochemicals. Individual ingredients can also be hybrids of natural sources and petrochemicals. So look for products that do contain ingredients that are directly derived from nature. |
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These are some good things to look for on food labels:
Certified Organic
All-Natural
Antibiotic Free
Hormone Free
Free Range
Wild (for fish)
Grass Fed
No GMO’s
Fair Trade
No Artificial… (you fill in the blank)
No Trans Fats
No Hydrogenated Oils |
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